Chapter 04: A Little More

SOOKIE POV

“Knowledge can hurt,” I said. In truth, I’d already felt gutted by it that night. I wasn’t sure whether Bill had been manipulating me with his blood or not, but I did know for sure that he’d not told me about blood ties. All I knew was that I was questioning our entire relationship—our love. And I knew that we’d be having a very serious discussion when he returned.

But the look in Eric’s eyes in that moment was more somber than even when he’d told me about blood ties and bonds.

He reached out and picked up the picture I’d just set upright.

“I know her,” he said quietly.

“Hadley? How? She’s alive?” I asked.

He nodded. “She belongs to Queen Sophie-Anne, Sookie. She is Sophie’s pet.”

“Pet?” I asked with a squeak, not even recognizing my own voice in that moment.

“A permanent blood donor. These donors were always tied to their ‘owners’ before the Great Revelation, but not always afterwards. I do not know Hadley’s permanent status.”

“P-pet?” I stammered.

He nodded. “Yes. Some vampires—if they find a human with particularly good blood—they keep them.”

My eyes widened. “Hadley is being used for blood?”

“And sex,” Eric said softly. “But she seemed content when I met her.” He looked down as if meeting my eyes pained him. “She offered herself to me.”

“Offered?”

“Blood and sex,” he revealed, bringing his eyes back to mine, searching for my reaction.

“And—you—uh—took her up on it?” I asked, wondering where my own tiny bolt of jealousy had come from.

“She sucked my dick,” he answered frankly. “And I took blood from her femoral artery after I,” he paused, “returned the favor.”

I took a deep breath and then took my time letting it out. “Bill says I taste different,” I said in a whisper. “Does she?”

“She was sweet,” he said. “That is why she’s Sophie’s favorite, but she also likes being with men too, so Sophie lets her enjoy others as long as she is available whenever she wants her.”

“But Hadley’s—uh—happy?” I asked.

He nodded. “She seems fine with the arrangement. She certainly likes the luxury of the palace and is given gourmet meals and much entertainment. She liked being bitten,” he responded.

I cringed. I couldn’t judge. So did I—during sex.

“Well,” I resolved, “I’m happy for her. I just wish that Gran were here to know that she was okay.”

He took my hand. “Sookie, there’s more.”

“Is this where the knowledge starts to hurt?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes. But—if you want—you can stay in the dark.”

I closed my eyes, even as I thought about the inevitability of my own lights being shut off when I couldn’t pay my electric bill. I’d never been afraid of the dark. My disability had always allowed me to “hear” when people were there—hear when they were threats.

“I didn’t hear the Rats before they attacked me!” I said loudly, startling Eric.

“You were listening that night?” Eric asked.

“I’d had my shields up while working. Too many negative thoughts and rumors about Bill and me, but I’d relaxed them once I went outside.” I shook my head. “If they had been thinking about attacking me—thinking about me directly—their thoughts should have gotten through. Heck, even my full shields don’t block those, and I’d not had the luxury of vampire blood yet,” I added, somewhat sarcastically.

“We should sit,” Eric said as he led me to the couch to sit down.

“Uh-oh,” I sounded.

“Dark or light, Sookie?” Eric asked somberly.

I found that question ironic, coming from a vampire. But I could not laugh at it, even though I tended to laugh when nervous.

“Tell me,” I said after a full minute of looking for my words.

“I will tell you no more and no less than the facts that I know,” he conveyed. “I have made inferences, but I will leave you free to make your own. Do you believe me?” he asked.

There was something in his eyes that was begging for me to trust him—to believe in him. It was something I seldom saw in humans and had never seen in Bill. It was openness. It was a gift, even though I recognized that it was one he’d prefer never giving.

One it would hurt for me to receive.

“I trust you,” I said quietly. Surprisingly, I found that I did trust him—after only a couple of nights knowing him. This vampire might have motives where I was concerned, but he was the one who had brought me food when he didn’t know that I was hungry. He’d held me when I’d cried for no apparent reason, and he’d not made me feel guilty or bad for not offering him a complete explanation of my tears.

He’d simply been there.

Though he’d clearly been uncomfortable because of my tears.

But how could I explain that it was his kindness, which had made me cry. It was hearing someone ask how my day was—when I hadn’t heard that question once since Gran had been killed. It was his question about how I preferred my steak to be cooked as if he wanted to know for next time—as if he planned to record my preferences for future occasions when he dropped by with the best meal I’d ever tasted in my entire life.

Maybe every word he’d told me was an elaborate lie meant to seduce me. Maybe I was a fool to trust him. Or maybe I’d been a fool to trust Bill.

I figured I’d know soon enough.

Eric seemed to understand that my thoughts were spinning quickly in my head, and he waited until they’d calmed a little.

“Ready?” he asked.

“No, but tell me anyway.”

He smiled at me. It was a soft smile—a kind one. It didn’t hold pity. I appreciated that.

“I have a spy in Sophie-Anne’s court,” he began. “I first heard about Hadley from him, for the queen was unusually fond of her, and anything unusual is something I want to hear about.”

I nodded for him to continue.

“Rasul, too, has sampled her,” he said, his words loaded with meaning. “But it is what he heard about her that caught my interest. In fact, it was his report that made me take Hadley up on her offer to taste her blood.”

“Andre, the queen’s child, has a special gift. He can taste blood and discern its components. He discovered that Hadley was part Fae.”

“Fae?”

“Fairy,” he clarified.

“Are fairies telepaths?” I whimpered.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “They guard their gifts carefully, especially from vampires, for the full-blooded of their kind are not safe around us. We cannot,” he paused, “control our bloodlust around them. But, given your gift, I would posit that telepathy is a gift among at least some of them.”

Eric nodded. “That is my conclusion, too. But, Sookie, Rasul heard more.” He took a breath that he didn’t need. He was stalling.

Uh-oh.

“Tell me,” I begged.

“Rasul overheard Hadley telling the queen about her family—others who might be part Fae. She mentioned a cousin with a special talent, but Rasul heard no more, for Andre was coming.”

Uh-oh.

“I have known Bill for about a decade,” he went on. “I first met him in Sophie-Anne’s court. He was her chief procurer. The last time I saw him—about a year ago—he was bragging about having been the one to find Hadley for the queen.”

“Procurer?” I asked.

“Someone who finds humans with unique or delicious blood,” he whispered.

I closed my eyes, part of me wishing I was still in the dark.

“All of this might be coincidence,” he said. “Still—I am sorry I didn’t see all the,” he paused, “possibilities before. I began asking serious questions of Bill’s motives only last night.”

“Why then?” I asked.

“He didn’t try to negotiate your payment up, and that is standard practice. Also, he didn’t move to save you from Long Shadow. Yes. I am faster than he, but he hadn’t even moved by the time Long Shadow was dead!”

My mind had stopped at a single word. “Payment?”

“Of course,” Eric said. “I had to pay Bill as soon as I made the request. Why? Was the amount an insult? Trust me, I am quite pleased by your performance and have a bonus check already written out. I’d intended to have it delivered to Bill tonight, but the situation changed.”

“Payment?”

Yeah—I was still stuck on that one word.

“The thousand dollars for your work last night,” he said. “I know now that it was too little. But—in my defense—I had tried to convince Bill that it would be best to put you on the payroll so that you could have medical insurance in case you were injured.” He looked away. “Given what happened, my concerns were justified. I am sorry I wasn’t prepared to stop Long Shadow before he could harm you, but the revelation of him as the thief truly surprised me. And you had to suffer for it,” he said with a sigh.

“Payment?” I asked again. Utterly stuck!

He looked at me with shock. “You didn’t know,” he growled. “He didn’t give you any of the money? He didn’t even tell you about it!”

I shook my head.

He stood and paced.

“Why did your heart beat increase when I offered to turn on the light? Why was your stomach growling when I arrived?” he asked, storming into the kitchen. As I buried my face into my hands, I heard him opening and closing my refrigerator, my freezer, and then my cupboards.

ERIC POV

Sookie’s refrigerator contained no meat. No vegetables. No fruit. There was a pitcher of tea, a carton of eggs—half gone—and a loaf of bread. There were condiments: mustard and ketchup. There was a Tupperware container of the same meal that she’d been eating when I arrived.

I opened the cabinets and found an almost empty can of coffee. There were several boxes of pasta-based dishes. All looked cheap and smelled cheaper. None of them looked to be providers of sustenance.

It was then that I noticed that the air conditioning wasn’t on, though it must have been uncomfortably hot in the house for a human. I’d noticed—with some concern—that all of the upstairs windows had been opened when I arrived.

Before tonight, I’d seen Sookie only twice—three times if one counted the vigil I’d made outside of her window the night before.

Each time, she’d been with Bill and had been dressed in a pretty, but certainly not expensive, sundress. From looking at her home the night before and seeing the condition of her automobile, I’d ascertained that she was from humble roots.

But I didn’t have any idea just how poor she was. I growled. Why the fuck wasn’t Compton helping her? Even if his motives regarding her were as underhanded as I thought, he should have been taking care of her!

Unless he preferred his victims to be vulnerable so that they would be more malleable—more grateful for every fucking scrap they got!

Fuck him!

When I returned to the living room, Sookie didn’t look up at me. She was taking deep breaths. “It’s nothing. I’d planned to eat at Merlotte’s, but Bill came in to tell me goodbye. I’d already opened a TrueBlood for him, but he didn’t want it, so I had to pay for it, so I worked through my official dinner break. We have to pay for the food if we ask for it to go, and I didn’t want to risk my tips by stopping work again. I’d already lost ten minutes speaking with Bill,” she explained. “And no one tips as well when they’ve seen me with him.”

“Have you told him this?” I snarled.

“He knows that there’s someone in the area targeting women who are with vampires,” she sighed.

“Yet he still visited you there—tonight,” I said. “This is my fault. I ordered him to be at the Arkansas border studying a dispute there within ninety minutes of my call.”

There was the sound of a bark outside, and Sookie turned her attention toward the door. A tear slipped from her eye. “It’s a stray. I call him Dean, but I can’t feed him tonight.” She looked at the floor. “I don’t have any food to spare.”

I looked at her curiously and then growled. “That is no dog, Sookie,” I said, standing up, even more angry that the people in Sookie’s life—the ones she trusted most—were so fucking set upon keeping her in the dark. Surely they understood that telepathy was a Supernatural trait! Even if they didn’t know what she was, specifically, they should have treated her with some fucking respect!

Hell! I’d only seen her a few times, and I already understood that she could take the truth—even when brutal. Moreover, I’d seen that she deserved the fucking truth!

I walked to the door and opened it. “Merlotte, get your furry ass in here—now!” I yelled.

“Sam?” Sookie asked uncertainly.

“Sam is a shifter,” I said bluntly. “That means he can turn into any animal. He must turn during a full moon, or he will be driven mad. However, he can turn at will. There are also Werewolves, which are called Weres. There are other Were-animals too, including a pack of Were-panthers in Hot Shot.”

Sookie’s mouth gaped.

“Show her, shifter,” I said looking out into the dark, “or I’ll kick the puppy until you cannot help but to shift.”

The mongrel entered Sookie’s home as if his bone had been stolen.

As if the mutt had a “bone” to speak of.

He looked neutered to me.

I felt the air beginning to stir. “She’s modest, you idiot!” I yelled, grabbing a throw pillow from the couch, just in time for the shifting Merlotte to grab it and cover his scanty genitalia.

“Sam?” Sookie asked.

“Sorry, Sookie. I didn’t want you to find out this way,” he said to her—though he was glaring at me.

Prick.

“What way?” she asked. “What way did you want for me to find out?”

“I was going to tell you, Sookie—honest I was,” he tried.

“When?”

He looked down. “It’s not just me I was protecting; the others of my kind—we can’t let people know about us until we are ready to come out like the vampires,” he explained.

“Yet I told you about myself—about my own difference from ‘normal’ people,” Sookie whispered. “I told you how lonely I felt. Surely you knew that I could keep a secret—that I could be trusted.”

“I wanted you to,” he paused, “be with me. But I wasn’t sure how you’d deal with all of this.”

Forgetting hitting Bill with a shovel, I wanna stab him with an ice pick now. I thought he was a low down dirty bastard when he was just ignoring Sookie’s struggles and making her pay for his blood and demanding she bought vitamins, but he’s actually stealing the money she earned using her telepathy. What a complete tosser.

Sam’s no better. I always thought the, “I didn’t know how you would take it,” spiel he comes out with was bs. I’m guessing she’d take it a hell of a lot better if he actually manned up and told her, and not find out by him being a perv and spying on her in dog form. Sam is a real sick puppy.

Okay so can we create a torture rack for Bill and set him in a great room with a skylight on a partly cloudy day so he slowly burns? Please just a little torture. Who am I kidding I want lots of torture. Keep him chained in silver for decades with donors just out of his reach. Prick!

I love love this!!!! Yeah Eric! I love that he called Sam out on his bullshit. Ugggg….If only this had happened in the books. Eric has always been under the radar kind to her. I hope he claims her as his. I think he needs to stake Bill. Can’t wait for more. The chapters just aren’t long enough lol. :>

Love your story, now I have to wait another 24 hours for the next chapter. Any chance we can get another one tonight as will as one tomorrow morning. She says with puppy dog eye’s and a cute smile. 🙂 sorry I don’t know how to make the emotiocons in here or spell them for that matter it seems.

If you keep this lovely short story going the way it is you may need to make a sequel of shorts, to follow it. Love your stories, I’ve even re-read a few a time or two and get something new out of them each time I re-read them.

It’s hard to find people around you, and in which you have trusted your own secrets, have been lying all your life, treating you like you’re not trustworthy, or with enough hate to tell your secrets to a queen vampire.

I’m so glad Eric now knows about her financial situation. Damn Bill he is stealing Sookie’s hard earned money too when she can barely put food on the table. Jackass. Eric needs to kick his ass. Poor Sookie is seeing hard truths. Can we kick Sam’s Harry dog ass too?

Yes!!! I am loving this! Bill never took care of her and was repeatedly disrespectful. You are so gifted, in your stories, when it comes to shining the spotlight on the characters’ behaviors. The subtle actions/reactions/lack or action that show their true colors. The inner working of your brain are amazing. XO

Wow. Not only is ScumBill an asswipe for making Sookie pay for his food when she has practically no food for herself, but he’s a thief as well. He really is scum. Yay for Eric for figuring out how badly she’s hurting for money. He’ll take care of her.

Bad Sam! She ought to smack him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper! It always bothered me that Sam knew what Sookie was, but hid what HE was from her. His excuses here (and in the books/show) were total BS. He always treated Sookie with an utter lack of respect. Berating her choices, just because she chose not to be with him (and because he was a small minded bigot), and treating her like she was stupid. With ‘friends’ like that, who needs enemies? I hated that she just accepted and constantly forgave the way he treated her. She was a total doormat to everyone except Eric. Ugh. I’m sure your Sookie will prove to be smarter than that! Totally love that Eric called him in and forced him to reveal himself! (And COVER himself! Lol)

Finally — EWWW!!!! The image of Eric getting sucked off by and going down on Hadley was just awful.
His honesty is to be applauded, but he probably should have been a *little* less graphic if he wants Sookie to be with him. Don’t think I could ever be with a guy I knew had gone down on my cousin. Shudder.

Wonderful chapter as always and I still can’t wait for the next one. Now, I’m off to hunt for brain bleach…. 😉

I am loving this story – Poor Sookie – I sure hope she keeps her eyes open. She needs to hide out till Eric can strangle Bill and make sure he’s on the job procuring for SA.
Thank you for sharing all your stories – This one gets read immediately when I see it in the inbox!

the two that supposedly care about her are her worst enemies. I want to be with you but i cannot be truthful. I love you but let me steal your money. who needs people like this in your life, not Sookie that is for sure. Love how Eric is being brutally honest with her. until the next post. KY

Gosh Kat thanks for this great chapter!
Bill and Sam make a perfect pair of assholes…
Loving Eric’s honesty . I hope Sookie will finally open her eyes and tell Bill to f..k off.
Jackie69
P.S. Eric with Hadley!? Gross!

For someone who always got a bad “rap” for his behavior, Eric was always pretty honest with Sookie in the books. Here he’s the only one who truly seems to respect her and treat her with kindness. Sure he wants her to be with him, but he’s being honest about that too. I’m just loving this. Can’t wait ’til she gets a chance to lay into both Sam and Bill.

Good work. I enjoy your Eric and Sookie. You wanted comments so I will give my opinion. I would use as much as AU as possible. The line of plot is set well so from there I would literally invent…might use some characters from the TV series (less than from the books ex: Waldo, Amelia,, Charles Twining, Buba)
Also I would keep Octavia. I would say Eric and Sookie to not say anything to Bill and try the services of a witch to clean Bill’s blood. And when everything is well set make a deal with Eric to protect her. I will say too that Eric can not challenge the queen so he can not know… so he must convince Sookie to keep it quiet until Bill uncovers himself… 🙂 Thank youuuu!. I like your story. bye

Bill you CHEAP ass… I know he’s betrayed Sookie in many ways most awfully having her beaten nearly to death (seriously how canon expected us to believe one gets past that is beyond me) but his not helping and actually aggravating her financial struggles in addition to that what amounts to stealing Sookie’s earnings from her? I want him to suffer… a lot … for a long time…

I think this might be one of my favorites. I love Eric’s blunt honesty and openess toward Sookie. I’m also seriously loving how he’s handling these idiotic hypocrites around her. Are you absolutely certain you want this to be a short???! How about if I say please with an Eric flavored, I mean Eric topped sundae with a heaping of gp? 😉

Love how much respect Eric has for Sookie, and how strong she is showing herself to be by accepting the truths he is offering her and not staying in the dark. Bill is his usual douche by not even telling her about the payment. Omg Sam is so in the doghouse (pun intended!). Eric seems to be the only one who values and understands her.

I love this Eric! I love that he knows, and cares, more about Sookie’s personal preferences than Bill probably ever cared to learn. Even yelling at Sam to cover himself to spare her modesty…that’s a real man. 🙂

Poor Sookie. So many hard truths all at once. At least Eric respects her enough to know she can handle it. I hope DoucheBill and ScumSam get a come-to-Jesus from Sookie the likes of which they’ve never seen!!! Love this. More please 😀

That miserable piece of douche-bag crap, it’s not worth it to waste a perfectly good stake on that slime ball. I rather hang from his balls and torture him very painfully for months, and maybe, even years. Loving Eric and this story.

I would really like to punch, Bill, Sam and Hadley in their faces. Their complete jerks. Hope they get what’s coming to them. I’m so happy, that Eric sees how completely wonderful Sookie is , and is being honest with her. Even, if I was like eww..about him being Hadley. Lol… At least he’s honest, even if the truth hurts, he showing her respect and affection in doing so.

Oh this is brilliant! You’ve destroyed Bill and Sam in a single chapter – totally awesome! It may hurt like fuck but Eric has empowered Sookie with knowledge tonight, let’s hope she’ll use it to her full advantage and negotiate a better life for herself working for Eric. I know we all want more of everything you write but I see a opportunity here for a long, long story! This is such an excellent point for rewriting SSVM with a Sookie who has her eyes wide open. Or maybe even just an idea for a future story waiting to be told.

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Many thanks to Seph, who is a wonderful friend and provides so much art to this site!Many thanks to my wonderful and generous Beta! I couldn't do it without you!from Hisviks, the patient owner of BEEHL the cat